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Mogu-Kagu Wood Furnishings & Design

I hope you’ll excuse the influx of Japanese designers that have shown up on the blog lately, it wasn’t intentional. When you own quite a personal blog like ours you have to go with the flow and pick out what’s inspiring you at that moment in time, but it’s quite apparent that a lot of good work is coming from that side of the world.

I’m constantly on the hunt for good designers that we can either showcase in the shop or feature on the blog, and when I casually bumped into an online shop this morning called Monosquare I was pleasantly surprised by their unique selection. Mono, Japanese word meaning “tangible object”, and Square, public place for community gatherings, was started by husband and wife Michael and Namie. Namie, originally from Japan, came to the US in 2000 and met Michael in 2001, in 2011 they had an idea to open an online shop to introduce products made by craftsmen and designers in Japan. It’s a great idea and I was instantly attracted to one in-particular that I’m highlighting today named Mitsugu Morita.

Mitsugu owns a company called Mogu-Kagu that aims to make high quality furniture, using solid wood in walnut and cherry. The furnishings are all made to be used for life, sharing valuable and precious time with the owner, thus gaining incredible character. It’s also quite a lot of pressure for Mitsugu because they have to be extremely functional and versatile, something that he’s succeeded in with the highest honours. He’s even made chairs for the Japanese Royal family before he set up independently. But besides furniture he makes wooden accessories out of scrap lumber, this includes coasters, pitchers, and vases (this is what Monosquare currently stock).

So what you’re seeing above and below is a variety of furniture and custom-made projects that I’ve selected from his personal website. It’s a great place that’s full of inspiring stuff, I was blown away by the photography which has that typical Japanese aesthetic of natural light and an ample amount of shadows to go with it. Something that makes the objects very attractive. I also picked out a few snaps from his blog which showcases his workshop and some up-close pictures of the objects in their surroundings, such as in the clients home. There’s one shot I’m particularly fond of that shows all the little carving marks up close (second from the bottom) which absolutely blew me away, I’ve never seen precision like this in furniture design before. Hopefully you’ll agree at how talented Mitsugu is and how fantastic these images all look.